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Episode56
A Plan to Dither We picked up right were we left off as we debated whether we wanted to stay for longer to better prepare Oros to survive alone while we go after the Star. It took us nearly two hours (according the the Arbiter) real-time to decide what to do in the first block. Hence, our dithering was raised to new heights and called out as such by Joe but eventually we decided to stay for just two days. While we dithered, we decided to scan the Gate sector for likely hiding spots. Kiwi's Espial/Perception spotted two extremely well-cloaked ships hiding nearby. The profile of the ships seemed to match Reaver specifications but we were not sensing anything with our Reaver Sense. Something like an hour real-time later, after dithering over multiple options (i.e. attack, suprise, learn more) Oz lost patience and proposed we hail them and force the issue. Objections to the plan were duly noted but we hailed them anyway. They identified themselves as Elan Montoya of the Prophecy Guard and then immediately jumped to FTL. One dither down but unanswered questions remained. Seeking more information about our phantom reaver-prophecy guard lurkers we went to talk to Yaw (Shadow Reaver prisoner). He did not know of any special reaver-sense blocking abilities but agreed to investigate. When we returned later he informed us that the Reavers had been digging deep into the Reaver wars of yore for technology that would help against the Fist. He also informed us that the Reavers knew where we were but had lost contact with us around the same time that the two reaver-prophecy guard ships left. This pretty much confirmed for us that the Reavers have anti-Reaver Sense tech. The good news was that due to Reaver politics its unlikely that it's being shared widely. Yaw also mentioned that we had a "Reaver Cluster" tracking us. They were holding back waiting for us to get closer to the Star but they were not far away which helped lend a sense of urgency to our dithering. Note: Yaw figured we were taking too many risks like many of our other incarnations. He figured because of that we would fail like the others before us. When we mentioned that we're following the Prophecy he said that might help since we were learning from those other incarnations. Perhaps, thats the nature of the Prophecy? It's a guidebook to the best path through infinite possibilities toward success. With the Reaver scouts gone from sight and our Reaver informant telling us that we were not in immediate danger, we set about dithering over the remainder of the original 2-day plan. There was a lot of Oros training which powered him up more. Interestingly, some skills/spell provide special powers and we discovered that Stealth allows him to appear like the Tenacious-Hound when he wants. That would be useful when we reach more civilized areas of the galaxy. Eventually, we dithered our way through the gate (after more official objections) but Oros noticed that something else came through with us. One of those damn Reaver scouts had snuck through, then flew off toward a nearby nebula to hide and presumedly monitor us. At this point the worst of the dithering was behind us but we still managed to debate the departing scout and our plan to proceed until nearly the end of the night. With a few real-time minutes to spare, we agreed on a plan to use the T-Hound to visually block our approach to the station (I think someone may have objected on principal). As T-Hound arced outwards away from the Gate we ejected and agility-stealthed onto the Gate station. Due to good planning, we landed near a utility airlock but the door was locked. Pete and Oz set about opening the door in their own unique ways. Unfortunately, Pete failed which almost offset the Oz's critical success but not quite and the door was open! However, our goal of leaving no trace for the Reavers to follow had been undone as part of the door was damaged in the failed part of the attempt. Inside, was a janitorial closet with a couple of PR 10 breathing apparatus. Oz and Kiwi abstained (well, Oz rolled a fumble - third one that night) so Pete and Joe scooped them. We left off with us in the utility closet, security deactivated, with an ancient gunked up door between us and the inside. Ideally, we don't need to damage the door to enter so we can further throw the Reavers off but we'll have to see if that's possible. Merge Inorganic, maybe? Random Notes: * We should learn more about how the Reavers can sense us and what we have that acts as a beacon (i.e. souls, light emulsion, reave metal, reaver-necrites, etc. * We now have a daily passphrase set up with the Prophecy guard so it's harder for Reavers to impersonate them * Oz got a special delivery from XSC of some sweet Brightness weapons. Rockets for the pilots, arrows for Oz, and some grenades for Telekinetic squirrels. Spelunking the plunders of ancient Petrees has its benefits! * The Gineer Core near the gate was not on our map, so we've added it for future plundering. * Interestingly, none of the Zombie planets in the Reaver Com match up with Core locations. * The Reaver Com is broken and only able to communicate about Zombie planet locations. If we fix it, it might be able to do more. Dangerous, but potentially very enlightening. * Oz put the Reaver Com into a Netherspace backpack to block any transmissions. * Further analysis of the Mysterious Green Vials from Zone Alpha revealed them to be multiple different strains of the Zombie Virus. Pete spent a 4-Hour Block researching their properties, then we opened up a Tree-Gate back to Vielos R&D and sent them through for further study. Ideally we can use them to create a Vaccine or some sort of Bio-Weapon to use against the Zombies? Meanwhile, Oz was still wondering "Do we need to take this? Our Zone Alpha counterparts showed some 'side effects' that might be a concern". * Not giving someone a benny is almost as much fun as giving one. 33 generic 11 generic story bonus (zombie menace) 11 academic for the logger . Back to Space Junk LogCategory:Space Junk